Joanne Kathleen Rowling (pronounced rolling) was born
on July 31st, 1965 in Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, England. Rowling
writing career started at the age of six when she wrote a story called
Rabbit. Since then Rowling has graduated from Exeter, worked as a teacher
and been an unemployed single parent. Divorced and living on public
assistance Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone at
a table in a café during her daughters naps. When Harry Potter
and the Philosopher's Stone was bought and published by Bloomsbury in
1997 her life changed dramatically, the Harry Potter series has since
then won numerous awards and become a tremendous success around the
world.

Like that of her own character, Harry Potter, J.K.
Rowling's life has the luster of a fairy tale. Divorced, living on public
assistance in a tiny Edinburgh flat with her infant daughter, it was
Harry Potter that rescued her. First, the Scottish Arts Council gave
Rowling a grant to finish the book. After its sale to Bloomsbury (UK)
and Scholastic Books, the accolades began to pile up. Harry Potter won
The British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year, and the Smarties
Prize, and rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. Book rights have
been sold to England, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Finland, Denmark,
Spain and Sweden.

The Early and Family life of J.K. Rowling is what makes this biography
worth reading. Don't expect much in a critical review of her writing.
Sean Smith has done readers a service by exposing so much misinformation
and setting the record straight about some of the basic factual
information about the life and writing career of J. K. Rowling.

Harry Potter has never been the star of a Quidditch team, scoring
points while riding a broom far above the ground. He knows no spells,
has never helped to hatch a dragon, and has never worn a cloak of
invisibility.

All he knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible
aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley — a great big swollen
spoiled bully. Harry's room is a closet at the foot of the stairs,
and he hasn't had a birthday party in eleven years.

But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives
by owl messenger: a letter with an invitation to an incredible place
that Harry — and anyone who reads about him — will find unforgettable.

For it's there that he finds not only friends, aerial sports, and
magic in everything from classes to meals, but a great destiny that's
been waiting for him... if Harry can survive the encounter.

The Dursleys were so mean and hideous that summer that all Harry
Potter wanted was to get back to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft
and Wizardry. But just as he's packing his bags, Harry receives
a warning from a strange, impish creature named Dobby who says that
if Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts, disaster will strike.

And strike it does. For in Harry's second year at Hogwarts, fresh
torments and horrors arise, including an outrageously stuck-up new
professor, Gilderoy Lockhart, a spirit named Moaning Myrtle who
haunts the girls' bathroom, and the unwanted attentions of Ron Weasley's
younger sister, Ginny.

But each of these seem minor annoyances when the real trouble begins,
and someone — or something — starts turning Hogwarts students to
stone. Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever?
Could it possibly be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told?
Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects...Harry
Potter himself!

For twelve long years, the dread fortress of Azkaban held an infamous
prisoner named Sirius Black. Convicted of killing thirteen people
with a single curse, he was said to be the heir apparent to the
Dark Lord, Voldemort. Now he has escaped, leaving only two clues
as to where he might be headed: Harry Potter's defeat of You-Know-Who
was Black's downfall as well. And the Azkaban guards heard Black
muttering in his sleep, "He's at Hogwarts... he's at Hogwarts."
Harry Potter isn't safe, not even within the walls of his magical
school, surrounded by his friends. Because on top of it all, there
may well be a traitor in their midst.

It's the pivotal fourth novel in the seven-part tale of Harry
Potter's training as a wizard and his coming of age. Harry wants
to get away from the pernicious Dursleys and go to the International
Quidditch Cup with Hermione, Ron, and the Weasleys. He wants to
dream about Cho Chang, his crush (and maybe do more than dream).
He wants to find out about the mysterious event that's supposed
to take place at Hogwarts this year, an event involving two other
rival schools of magic, and a competition that hasn't happened for
a hundred years. He wants to be a normal, fourteen-year-old wizard.
Unfortunately for Harry Potter, he's not normal — even by wizarding
standards.

So spoke Albus Dumbledore at the end of Harry Potter’s fourth
year at Hogwarts. But as Harry enters his fifth year at wizard school,
it seems those bonds have never been more sorely tested. Lord Voldemort’s
rise has opened a rift in the wizarding world between those who
believe the truth about his return, and those who prefer to believe
it’s all madness and lies—just more trouble from Harry Potter.